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Here's my theory on how Hellickson does it better than others. Despite a seemingly average BB/9 rate in the majors, He has elite control.. Look at his walk rates throughout the minors. The guy can put it anywhere he wants it, almost any time he wants to.

Madden draws up his defense and pitching staff to work in sync. If pitcher places pitches on spot X, the batter will hit it to Y the vast majority of the time, and Y is where Madden has his fielders set up. Hellickson pitches to spot X extremely well, and he's instructed to rather miss once in a while (which explains his seemingly high walk rates) than leave one in a spot that isn't conducive for the defense Madden has set up.

He's benefited by two great corner outfielders and a good pitching park, but this is how he outpitches his FIP.

There really needs to be a pitchFX stat for the % of pitches on the black. Guys who live there more often will draw weaker contact and therefore have lower BABIP.

Where do you get these velocity off the bat readings? That would explain a lot in terms of guys getting "lucky" and "unlucky"

I am a subscriber to a site. It's a paid thing, and I am not allowed to name the site on PSD lol (spamming reasons).

But it 100% does explain babip bumps and dumps that people react/over-react to.

Hellickson is an example of a pitcher with an extremely low velocity of the bat average. Maybe he is just hard to pick up, maybe he is just difficult to square up, maybe he just has a lot of rotation (he does) and it could be a combination of these things.

I am not 100% sure exactly why he has this ability, but as long as he does, his babip is going to remain very low.

Now imagine how good he will be when he actually learns how to control his walks and gets his strike outs to his minor league levels? He may never do this, but I would bet on the chance that he eventually does. Matt Cain is an example of a pitcher just like this that did this.

Nobody ever understood why he always beat his peripherals. Well this is why (or it could be one reason, you also have to have a probability of a pitcher actually doing that at some point and being more 'lucky' than others over a time frame).

Here's my theory on how Hellickson does it better than others. Despite a seemingly average BB/9 rate in the majors, He has elite control.. Look at his walk rates throughout the minors. The guy can put it anywhere he wants it, almost any time he wants to.

Madden draws up his defense and pitching staff to work in sync. If pitcher places pitches on spot X, the batter will hit it to Y the vast majority of the time, and Y is where Madden has his fielders set up. Hellickson pitches to spot X extremely well, and he's instructed to rather miss once in a while (which explains his seemingly high walk rates) than leave one in a spot that isn't conducive for the defense Madden has set up.

He's benefited by two great corner outfielders and a good pitching park, but this is how he outpitches his FIP.

There really needs to be a pitchFX stat for the % of pitches on the black. Guys who live there more often will draw weaker contact and therefore have lower BABIP.

What you defined was command, not control.

Command is putting the ball where you want. Control is not allowing the walks.

He doesn't have elite control, he has average control.

His command is difficult to assess, because we don't know where the pitcher is trying to throw the pitch when he delivers it. We just know the results.

I for one am a believer that a pitcher with good command, would also usually have at least above average control and not consciously allow walks since they are the cardinal sin of pitching.

And from watching him pitch, it's not like he hits Jose Molina's glove that well, he can become scattered at times.

Usually pitching command and control greatly improve as the pitcher gets closer to ages 27-28, and then it consistently gets better as they age. It's the one thing that pitchers improve on as they age. Usually command/control is weaker earlier in their careers and progressively gets better (obviously there are guys like Zambrano that do not do this).

As to your last comment, there is, I have seen it before, but I don't remember where. But those that do this (guys like Kershaw, Halladay, Lee Hernandez etc) are the best pitchers in the game, but they aren't beating their periphs.

I am a subscriber to a site. It's a paid thing, and I am not allowed to name the site on PSD lol (spamming reasons).

But it 100% does explain babip bumps and dumps that people react/over-react to.

Hellickson is an example of a pitcher with an extremely low velocity of the bat average. Maybe he is just hard to pick up, maybe he is just difficult to square up, maybe he just has a lot of rotation (he does) and it could be a combination of these things.

I am not 100% sure exactly why he has this ability, but as long as he does, his babip is going to remain very low.

Now imagine how good he will be when he actually learns how to control his walks and gets his strike outs to his minor league levels? He may never do this, but I would bet on the chance that he eventually does. Matt Cain is an example of a pitcher just like this that did this.

Nobody ever understood why he always beat his peripherals. Well this is why (or it could be one reason, you also have to have a probability of a pitcher actually doing that at some point and being more 'lucky' than others over a time frame).

could it be some sort of deceptive movement? Can you look up Mo Rivera... I would guess he has low velocity off the bat... especially considering he has low BABIP with those horrible defenses of the Yanks.

Originally Posted by MrPoon

man with hair like fire can destroy souls with a twitch of his thighs.